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  Again, they both ignored the obvious and Jason sat in the back seat with the smelly dog while Laura drove them home. Oscar had to stay outside until later that evening, but as soon as Megan was settled Jason unearthed all the old towels he could find and ran a bath full of warm water.

  ‘Will dishwashing liquid be OK?’

  ‘I think baby shampoo might be better.’

  ‘Hey, good idea! I should have thought of that for your bath.’

  ‘You didn’t!’

  ‘Didn’t what?’

  ‘Put dishwashing liquid in my bath.’

  ‘It needed bubbles. Worked quite well, I thought.’

  ‘No wonder my skin’s been feeling so dry all week.’

  ‘Bet it was squeaky clean, though.’

  ‘You’re impossible.’ Laura laughed. ‘But never mind. Let’s see if we can get Oscar squeaky clean, shall we?’

  Oscar didn’t take kindly to being bathed. He shook the offending substance off frequently enough to soak the walls, floor, Jason and Laura. It took six towels to get him reasonably dry, and by then the dog was so tired out by the trauma of it all he curled up on the pile of damp towels and went very firmly to sleep.

  ‘I know how he feels,’ Jason groaned. ‘I’m heading for bed as soon as I’ve dried off as well.’ He stripped his soaked T-shirt off and was about to drop it on the floor when he caught Laura’s stare. She had taken her glasses off because of the rain effect of Oscar’s shaking, but even the depth of colour in her brown eyes wasn’t enough to conceal the dilation of her pupils. The sight of a pink tongue tip running over her lower lip confirmed what Jason was thinking. The heavy T-shirt slipped from his fingers, unheeded. His mates were right. Laura did fancy him.

  His gaze didn’t stop at her face. Laura’s T-shirt was as wet as his had been and it clung to her breasts. Jason dragged his gaze back up to her face and the moment the eye contact was renewed he realised the truth. Any attraction here was mutual. For a long moment they simply stared at each other. And then Jason reached out.

  ‘You’d better get that T-shirt off,’ he murmured. ‘You’ll catch a cold.’

  He helped her. It was Jason that dropped the damp garment. This time as their gazes caught Jason was much closer, and it was so easy to bend his head and kiss Laura’s upturned face.

  One kiss was not enough. It could never have been enough. Jason could taste things he’d never thought it was possible to taste. All the things he liked about Laura were there-her kindness and loyalty, her intelligence and warmth. Her humour and strength. And he learned something new about Laura Green. Despite anything that appearances might have suggested, she was capable of a passion that blew his socks off.

  One kiss and then another…and another. Jason’s tone when he spoke might have been cheeky but the question in his eyes was very serious.

  ‘I think you might catch a cold, wearing that damp bra. You’d better get it off.’

  He helped her. The lacy garment went the same way as the T-shirt and this time Jason could explore the delicious softness of a body type he’d never had the pleasure of tasting before.

  ‘You’re gorgeous,’ he told Laura. ‘Did you know that?’

  ‘You’re not half bad yourself,’ she responded shyly. Then she caught her bottom lip between her teeth. ‘But I think you should get out of those damp jeans before you catch a cold.’

  She helped him and Jason didn’t even bother to stifle a groan of pure desire as she tackled the button and zip. He caught her hands. ‘If you want this to stop,’ he warned, ‘it had better be now.’

  The gaze from those chocolate-brown eyes was perfectly steady. ‘I don’t want it to stop,’ she said softly. ‘Do you?’

  ‘Hell, no!’ Jason grinned, swept Laura up into his arms and carried her towards his bedroom.

  For a moment, as she lay on his bed, Jason experienced a flash of panic. Was he out of his mind? This was Laura-a mate, one of the boys, no less, and a friend he was depending on to help him through a period of crisis in his life. And then Laura smiled and reached out, drawing his head down to hers, and at the touch of her lips Jason knew he’d never been more sane in his life.

  The blinding clarity with which he could suddenly see the reason for all his past romantic disasters was a revelation, drawing a sigh of contentment that mingled with Laura’s breath as Jason gave up thinking about the wisdom of what he was doing. Gave up thinking full stop, in fact, and simply allowed himself to experience, body and mind, the most wonderful sex he’d ever had.

  The revelation came back later as he lay, curled around Laura’s body, listening to her soft, even breathing as she slept. It was as though he’d been trying to fit the pieces of a puzzle together in the wrong order for all these years. Sex, friendship and then a lasting love. It had never worked and now he knew why.

  With the friendship and trust coming first, it added a dimension to the sex that he’d never known could exist. Even with Donna, and the twelve-month relationship, by the time they’d developed any kind of trust and friendship, that initial mind-blowing lust had worn off and the friendship had faded in much the same way.

  This thing with Laura was completely different. To be honest, it scared the hell out of him because, this time, he didn’t want anything to fade. The friendship or the lust. If those held together then he knew that would be the kind of love that could last a lifetime.

  He’d told Laura a while back about the attributes he looked for in women. They had to be fun to be with. Adventurous. And at least reasonably intelligent. Laura was fun, no doubt about that, and her intelligence was equally unquestionable. Adventurous? How many women would demand to go slithering down a steep bank to explore a wrecked car for potential victims? Or take on the adoption of a fat, smelly dog? Or move into a virtual stranger’s house to help look after a baby, for that matter? What was any of that if it wasn’t adventurous?

  This was scary all right. Jason could recognise what he’d found and, for the first time in his life, he had found something he really, really didn’t want to lose. This was it. For all these years he had been skating on the surface of life-all fun and no responsibility. He wouldn’t have taken on his current situation if he’d had any real choice in the matter, and he had to admit he wouldn’t have looked twice at Laura if he’d been on a mission to find female companionship.

  Circumstances had pushed his boundaries and had had the side effect of making Jason grow up a little. He considered the sobering realisation of just how meaningless his love life had been until now. A selection of bimbos who had impressed the hell out of his colleagues, but now he could see himself through Laura’s eyes and he almost groaned aloud. No wonder she had told him he was shallow.

  He was shallow. Or, at least, he had been until now. The depth to which he wanted involvement with Laura was terrifying. She had the power to hurt him very badly if she didn’t want what he could offer. And why should she on anything more than a short-term basis? Laura was so far above the kind of women he had always attracted so easily. Maybe she was too good for the likes of him to aspire to.

  The fact was that Laura was out of his league in any category that really mattered, and Jason knew it. He’d have to work hard to win her and she wasn’t going to settle for second best. She’d walked out on a guy after living with him for two years because he hadn’t measured up. Jason couldn’t bear the thought of giving all he had and still finding he hadn’t made the grade a couple of years down the track.

  How could he convince Laura that he was worth being with…for ever?

  Darkness hid his smile. He had a bonus that no one else could offer. Something that Laura already loved.

  He had Megan.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  ‘W HAT is it, Tim?’ Laura paused in her task of restocking the resuscitation kit. ‘Have I sprouted horns or something?’

  ‘I’m trying to work out what’s so different about you.’

  ‘Can’t be my hair. I’ve had it like this for two weeks now.’